Rating firms need to introspect; disconnected with investors’

Talking to reporters after S&P Global Ratings ruled out an upgrade for India for next 2 years, while retaining rating at lowest investment grade 'BBB-', Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said the government will continue to adhere to the path of economic reforms and policies.

The government on Wednesday slammed global rating agencies for not upgrading India’s sovereign rating despite a slew of reforms, saying they need to do some “introspection” as investors globally feel the country is “under-rated”. Talking to reporters after S&P Global Ratings ruled out an upgrade for India for next 2 years, while retaining rating at lowest investment grade ‘BBB-‘, Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said the government will continue to adhere to the path of economic reforms and policies.

“If the rating has not been improved, it’s a matter which doesn’t bother us so much. It’s a question which calls for an introspection among those who do the rating,” Das said. He said global investors feel India is highly “under-rated”. “There is a disconnect, therefore, between what the investors are thinking of, what they have in their mind, and (what) the rating agencies are concluding. I think somewhere there is a disconnect,” he said.

Das cited various steps taken by the government in the last two years, including controlling inflation and structural reforms like GST and bankruptcy. “If you compare the various factors which the report itself talk about, is there any other economy that equals this? So with all this, if there is no improvement, I think it’s a matter for the rating agency itself to put a question to itself and perhaps undertake a kind of introspection,” Das said.

The government will continue to adhere to the path of economic reforms as well as various policy initiatives and it’s for the rating agencies to take their own view, he added. “I am not questioning anybody’s methodology now. It’s a detailed report we have to go through. They are independent rating agencies. And we value their comments…and attach a lot of importance to the comments and observations of all the
rating agencies,” he said.